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Visiting Maleny Botanic Gardons

May 1, 2016

Over the ANSAC Day long weekend we made a trip up the hills to Maleny Botanic Gardens It is not probably the obvious place to go dragonfly hunting in a botanic garden but with its numerous pools and waterfalls the setting makes an excellent habitat for dragonflies. Although late in the year there were plenty of dragonflies to see and surprisingly I saw Scarlet Perchers (Diplacodes haematodes) in abundance and yet this year I have seen none in Meldale and it is said to be a lowland species for SE QLD not expected up on top of the Range in Maleny. I shall have to visit in the height of summer and see what other species may be present.

There were lots of Blue Skimmers (Orthetrum caledonicum) more than Fiery Skimmers (Orthetrum villosvittatum) round the ponds and I saw one ring pair of blue skimmers and some tenerals. There was also the occasional Black Headed Skimmer (Crocothemis nigrifrons) again close to the edges of the pools. On the lilies I saw an Australian Emperor egg laying and there were a few emeralds patrolling the water but I did not get a photo that was good enough to determine which specieis. All these species are also still present in Meldale along with slender skimmer (Orthetrum Sabina) may be due to the very warm weather we are still having in SE QLD with minimum and maximum temperatures for March and now April likely to break(ing )records.

The plants are worth seeing in the gardens and there is bird life too. On one pond even with lots of people milling around there was an azure king fisher catching dragonflies and in the sky I saw a hawk that looked like a grey goshawk and a pair of yellow –tailed black cockatoos fly passed.